When a salesperson has happy ears, it means that they only hear what they want to hear. While this may allow the salesperson to leave almost every meeting with a good feeling, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will close the sale. As a salesperson, your job isn't just to pick up on the positive cues; your job is to reveal and address potential roadblocks, conflicts and ambiguities with the prospect before they become a larger problem later in the sales cycle.

Listen as Sandler trainer Mike Crandall explains this Sandler Rule, and take a minute to reflect on your last few sales meetings. Have your happy ears kept you from completely clearing up the situation for you and the prospect? Have you been adequately recapping conversations? If not, pick up that phone and clear things up. Otherwise, your happy ears will have made an unhappy customer down the line.

Sandler Training is a global training organization with over three decades of experience and proven results. Sandler provides sales and management training and consulting services for small- to medium-sized businesses as well as corporate training for Fortune 1000 companies. Our proven methodologies and specialized tools equip our trainees with the skills necessary to improve both their business and bottom line.